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The Repository is a new online database of sound recordings, funded by the ARC project Sonic Practice in Japan (DP1312035). The Repository features recordings made in Japan. This site will provide research…

The Japanese rock garden has just been refreshed for the new academic year. If you have a chance to attend any of the Japanese Studies Centre’s events this year, one bonus will be a view of the new and improved garden! Thanks go to the landscape spe…

On Saturday 15th March the Japanese Studies Centre at Monash University held a one-day Symposium on the theme of Japan, Australia and the global context: Connections across languages and societies. The Symposium marked the retirement of Associate Pr…

The Japanese Studies Centre hosted a special presentation by Peter Eckersall, a Monash Graduate and long time associate of the JSC. Peter’s presentation reflected on his days at Monash as an MA and PhD student, describing the intellectual tools…

Welcome to the Japanese Studies Centre

The Japanese Studies Centre has been coordinating and enhancing the development of Japanese studies in Victoria since 1981. A full description of the history of the Centre can be found here.

Originally established as an inter-University Centre, the Japanese Studies Centre became one of the affiliated centres of the Monash Asia Institute in 1989. It is now a Research Centre of the School of Languages Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, in the Faculty of Arts, Monash University.

The Centre is led by a Director (currently Professor Carolyn Stevens) and its membership includes both Monash researchers in the area of Japanese studies and a wider group of affiliates from other institutions. The JSC Advisory Board includes members who represent several Melbourne universities engaged in research on Japan and teaching the Japanese language.

The principal activity of the Japanese Studies Centre is to conduct and facilitate research on Japan. Activities of the Japanese Studies Centre include:

maintaining a mailing list of Japanese Studies sending information about related activities and events sponsored by the JSC and others. To join the list, please send a short message here with ‘subscribe jsc’ in the message title.

The Japanese Studies Centre is proud of its association with Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC, one of the first and most complete online Japanese dictionaries, operated by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (EDRDG) and associated with the JMdict/EDICT and KANJIDIC projects. Jim, who is a former member of Monash’s IT Faculty, and a researcher in Japanese-related computational linguistics, has been a Board member and Treasurer of the Centre for many years.

Another important digital resource is the Sonic Japan Digital Repository, a digital humanities project and online database of sound recordings made in Japan which will provide research training for postgraduates in Japanese studies and cognate disciplines, as well as providing an important resource to a global community of social scientists in the burgeoning field of sensory studies. Many of these recordings will have pedagogical uses in the Japanese language classroom.

The Japanese Studies Centre houses the Melbourne Centre for Japanese Language Education, which provides a variety of activities and programs to teachers of Japanese in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. These activities and programs focus on developing teaching skills, creating teaching materials and encouraging the enhancement of professionalism among teachers. The Centre, which cooperates with the Departments of Education in three states, is now widely known as ‘the MCJLE’. The MCJLE works cooperatively with teachers of Japanese to them well informed about the Centre’s programs, and provides professional support and information which allows them to work effectively in the area of Japanese language eduction.

The Centre also hosts the HDR Kenkyukai, an informal group of Japanese Studies students seeking to gain both academic and professional help from each other on a regular basis. The group meets once a week on Wednesdays at 5 pm. The group aims to provide a fun and stress-free environment in which research students can get together to discuss their projects and work/life balance in a friendly, casual atmosphere. The main aim of the group is to provide feedback and advice relating to research projects in a friendly, non-judgemental atmosphere. If you are interested in joining, please email the JSC.

The Japanese Studies Centre is also the editorial home of the Routledge published journal, Japanese Studies, a fully refereed, international, interdisciplinary journal of the JSAA (Japanese Studies Association of Australia) which publishes scholarly articles on various aspects of Japan, as well as book and film reviews. In addition to general non-thematic editions, the journal regularly publishes guest-edited thematic issues on such themes as postwar politics, environmental issues, literature, citizenship, the legal system, modern technology, management, Japanese language teacher education, and popular culture. These thematic issues are particularly valuable for university teachers and students who use up-to-date studies of Japan contained in the journal to supplement course readings. Contributions are invited from scholars around the world. Ideas expressed by the authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, the Association, the Editorial Advisory Board, the JSC or the University.

Latest News

Welcome to 2015! The Japanese Studies Centre monthly seminar series begins next month, and here are some ‘save the dates’ for the first semester meetings. All meetings will run from 12 noon to 1:30 pm at the Japanese Studies Centre. A light lunch will be served – RSVPs appreciated but not required!
18 March: Dr. Robyn Spence-Brown, Read more

The Japanese Studies Centre hosted a joint completion seminar by two PhD students in the Linguistics program at Monash University: Mr. Shinji Okamura and Ms. Rikki Campbell. Shinji spoke about his research on policy issues when implementing Japanese language learning in primary schools in Victoria, and Rikki presented her findings on the impact of study Read more

Monash Asia Institute
Trans-Asia As Method Seminar Series
Rethinking “cultural adaptation” and “ethnic community” in the age of mobility
Jointly organized with Japanese Studies Centre & Asian Cultural and Media Studies
Research Cluster
Venue: Japanese Studies Centre Auditorium, G17 building 54,
Date: 12-2:30pm, 22 August (Friday)
Monash University Clayton Campus
Featuring two empirical research presentations, this seminar will reconsider key concepts in the study of Read more

More News

by Professor Gregory Pflugfelder, Columbia University
Gregory Pflugfelder is an Associate Professor of Japanese History at Columbia University in New York. He received his BA from Harvard (1981), his MA from Waseda (1984), and his PhD from Stanford (1996). His current research engages the construction of masculinities, the history of the body, queer sexualities, and representations Read more

Sonic Japan Digital Repository
The Repository is a new online database of sound recordings, funded by the ARC project Sonic Practice in Japan (DP1312035). The Repository features recordings made in Japan. This site will provide research training for postgraduates in Japanese studies and cognate disciplines, as well as providing an important resource to a global community Read more

The Japanese Studies Centre is proud to support postgraduate research at Monash. Today’s seminar featured presentations by Jenny Hall (Anthropology), Adam Zulawnik (Translation Studies) and Gwyn McClelland (Historical Studies). Thanks to Tom Baudinette for chairing the day’s proceedings, and good luck to all the postgrads on their way to completing their theses!
Read more

Members of the Japanese Studies and Translation and Interpreting Studies communities at LLCL were deeply engaged with a joint presentation from the Faculty Visiting Distinguished Scholar Prof. Kayoko Takeda (Rikkyo University, Japan), Marc Orlando (T & I) and Beatrice Trefalt (Japanese/ Asian Studies).
Their presentation, entitled INTERPRETING IN ZONES OF CONFLICT, included discussion about the roles and status Read more

The Japanese Studies Centre was pleased to present this seminar in collaboration with MAI’s TransAsia Seminar Series. Despite the rainy weather, there was a good number gathered to hear A/Professor Oishi’s paper on the occasion of her first visit to Monash and the JSC. We thank her for her time and look forward to future Read more

LLCL’s Japanese Studies and Translation and Interpreting Studies will host a visit by Professor Takeda Kayoko, who works in the area translation and interpreting studies at the Rikkyo Graduate School of Intercultural Communication, from 12 to 16 May 2014.
Professor Takeda’s research interests cross translation studies and history: she is interested in the role of the translator Read more

The Japanese rock garden has just been refreshed for the new academic year. If you have a chance to attend any of the Japanese Studies Centre’s events this year, one bonus will be a view of the new and improved garden! Thanks go to the landscape specialist and gardener Mark Denovan for his hard work over Read more

This seminar drew in a crowd from those interested in both Japanese Studies and Linguistics, and Dr. Ohashi’s splendid presentation did not disappoint. This cross cultural examination of the speech act of thanking and apologising had us all examining our own practices in Australian and Japanese contexts.
Read more

The Japanese Studies Centre hosted a special presentation by Peter Eckersall, a Monash Graduate and long time associate of the JSC. Peter’s presentation reflected on his days at Monash as an MA and PhD student, describing the intellectual tools he acquired here before embarking on his career as an academic and a dramaturg. Peter assumes Read more

JAPANESE STUDIES CENTRE
IS PROUD TO PRESENT A SPECIAL SEMINAR
‘THOUGHTS ON THE AUSTRALIA – JAPAN RELATIONSHIP AFTER THE 2013 ELECTION’
Mr. Kensuke Yoshida
Minister (Political) and Head of Chancery
Embassy of Japan, Canberra
Friday 20th September
12 noon to 1 pm
Japanese Studies Centre, Auditorium.
Building 54, Monash University
Clayton Campus, Wellington Rd., Clayton
Speaker Bio: Since August 2013, Mr. Yoshida has been responsible Read more

Today’s seminar by Professor Ota was well attended despite the lure of balmy spring-like weather. His analysis of trends in overseas student exchange (both going to and from Japan) included demographic, social and financial factors.
Professor Ota was introduced by Dr. Hiroko Hashimoto, who lectures in Japanese at Monash Read more

A great turnout on a sunny winter day, including JSC board members Jim Breen and former Director Professor Emeritus Ross Mouer
Wes Robertson and Helen Marriott chat before the seminar begins
Dr. Robyn Spence Brown introduces the first speaker, Ms. Sae BANDO
Sae spoke about her research on repeat formatted repair in conversations between native speakers and learners Read more

The Japan Times featured comments from on the Abe – Abbott relationship in this 2015 article.
Emeritus Professor Jiri Vaclav Neustupný has been conferred the highly prestigious Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor Akihito. See the full story here.
Carolyn Stevens wrote an article on Yoko Ono from the Japanese Studies perspective, which appeared Read more

Thanking and Politeness in Japanese: Balancing Acts in Interaction
Weds 23 October 2013
12 noon to 1 pm
Japanese Studies Centre Auditorium
Dr. Jun Ohashi (Asia Institute, University of Melbourne)
This seminar is a preview of his book of the same title, which will be published by Palgrave Macmillan later this year. It synthesizes his previous work on thanking, Read more

Japanese Studies Centre
The Mitsubishi Corporation Seminar Series
Japan Renewal: post 3/11 Japan and the Media
Melbourne, Friday 21 June 2013
Monash Law Chambers
This interdisciplinary seminar explored the roles of traditional and new media in the reporting and documenting of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami in Northeastern Japan. The triple disaster on 11 March 2011 threw into relief a variety Read more

The Japanese Studies Centre Director, Prof. Carolyn Stevens, represented Monash and the JSAA at the Terasaki Center Annual Forum at UCLA, where directors of Japanese Studies Centers and Japanese Studies Associations from the US, the UK, France, Mexico, Brazil, and Korea exchanged views on the current state of teaching and research in Japanese Studies across these Read more

Dr. Iori Hamada (pictured centre) from the University of Melbourne presented her paper on ‘Authenticity and Domestication: A Study of Japanese Restaurants in Melbourne’ on 8 May. The seminar was well attended, all left the discussion thinking about about their favourite restaurants…and food!
Read more

All welcome!
When — Weds, 12 noon to 1 pm
Where — Japanese Studies Centre, Auditorium. Building 54, Monash University Clayton campus, Wellington Rd., Clayton
13 MarchSpeaker: Dr. Reto Hofman, SOPHIS, Monash UniversityTitle: ‘Dark Link: Japanese New Order Theorists and Italian Fascism’
Abstract: Dr. Hofmann will discuss the role of Italian Fascism in Japanese New Order thinking Read more